Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners headline Haskell

Horseracing Betting Lines

07/29/2010 - Oceanport, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The two leading three-year-old colts in the country top a field of eight for Sunday's $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver and Preakness champ Lookin At Lucky will be joined by six other three-year-olds.

Trained by Bob Baffert, Lookin At Lucky will be making his first start since winning the Preakness on May 15. The 2009 champion two-year-old male will be ridden by Martin Garcia who guided the colt to victory in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. The pair will start from the inside post.

Lookin At Lucky, owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, finished sixth as the 6-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby when he also broke from the one hole.

"He keeps drawing the rail," Baffert commented by phone.

Installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite for Sunday, Lookin At Lucky has won seven of 10 career starts for more than $2.1 million.

"He looks like he's ready for a big race. It's not an easy spot, but from here on out none of them are easy," Baffert noted. "We're all in the business to see who has the best horse. When you can beat them it makes it even better. Everyone in the race thinks they have the best horse."

Baffert won the Haskell with Roman Ruler (2005), War Emblem (2002), and Point Given (2001).

Super Saver, trained by Todd Pletcher, will also be making his first start since the Preakness when he was eighth as the 9-5 favorite. The colt is the 3-1 co-favorite with local winner Trappe Shot and will break from post six with Calvin Borel again riding.

Owned by WinStar Farm, Super Saver was third in this year's Tampa Bay Derby and second in the Arkansas Derby prior to capturing the Run for the Roses at 8-1.

The colt has career earnings of better than $1.8 million with three wins in eight starts.

"We feel very good about his fitness level," said Elliott Walden, VP and racing manager for WinStar Farm, "and how he's coming up to the Haskell.

"I think at this time of year in the three-year-old crop, it's a new season. The race is going to be run for the three-year-old champion in the second half of the year. You have a few horses on even ground, Super Saver being one of them. That's one of the reasons we're going to Monmouth. We want it to be settled on the track."

WinStar Farm horses Bluegrass Cat and Any Given Saturday won the Haskell in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

Trappe Shot won Monmouth's Long Branch Stakes earlier this month. The chestnut colt will be ridden by Alan Garcia from the far outside post.

"He's doing great," trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. "We know he likes it (Monmouth)."

Here is the complete field for the Haskell in post position order: Lookin At Lucky, Martin Garcia, 5-2; Afleet Again, Joe Bravo, 12-1; Ice Box, Jose Lezcano, 9-2; First Dude, Ramon Dominguez, 6-1; Our Dark Knight, Elvis Trujillo, 15-1; Super Saver, Calvin Borel, 3-1; Uptowncharlybrown, Rajiv Maragh, 15-1 and Trappe Shot, Alan Garcia, 3-1.

Last year's Haskell was won by eventual Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra. In 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness champ Big Brown captured the race on his way to being voted that year's champion three-year-old colt.

The Haskell, the track's premier race, will be televised on ABC with a post- time of 5:45 p.m. (et).

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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